• About the Work of Art

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A sculptor, a painter, and a storyteller of great reputation, Charles Marion Russell achieved fame during his lifetime as a leading artist of the American West. He depicted Native Americans, cowboys, the frontier, and wildlife based on his experiences and romantic view of the West. His observations of western life took the form of watercolors, drawings, paintings, sculpture, illustrated letters, and tall tales and stories. A master storyteller in his own right, Charles Russell’s paintings are records of the West he witnessed, experienced, and interpreted at the turn of the twentieth century.

Born and raised in St. Louis until he was fifteen, Russell was excited to live in a city that was a gateway to the western frontier for adventurers, explorers, and artists. His artistic skill was recognized and encouraged by his parents. His mother was an artist; his grandfather, a silversmith; and several of his siblings displayed artistic talent. Although he progressed rapidly in his artwork, winning blue ribbons in 1876 and 1877 at the St. Louis County Fair, his family could not persuade him to pursue formal artistic training. One of his teachers remembered the days when he would play hooky from school, galloping off in a cloud of dust, past the open classroom windows, yelling in defiance.

Shortly before his sixteenth birthday, Russell journeyed to the Montana Territory, where he would spend the rest of his life. He worked as a cowhand on the open range. However, he lost his ranching job and soon began working with a skilled contract hunter and trapper named Jake Hoover. Hoover was among the last generation of mountain men who hunted wild game to provide food for ranches and railroad crews.

As Hoover’s assistant, Russell became a close observer of wildlife, developing an appreciation for the wilderness. The knowledge of animal anatomy that Russell gained from his experiences with Hoover helped make him one of America’s greatest wildlife artists. With Hoover he also met many Native Americans, becoming knowledgeable about their lives and cultures. He learned Indian sign language. His new friends, communicated to him many of their oral traditions and tales, which Russell later incorporated into his artwork.

Indeed, Russell became skilled as an artist-observer, and he regularly amazed onlookers by casually modeling a realistic figure behind his back or in his pocket. His natural ability as a sculptor allowed Russell to develop his skills as a painter. He would carefully arrange small, modeled figures and transfer the scenarios to canvas.

Russell died in 1926. Shortly after, his good friend Will Rogers wrote, “He was the greatest artist the West has ever produced . . . . He didn’t go there to study the West, just to paint it. He loved it, lived it, and painted it because he loved it.”

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